Jane Mayer’s article on the Koch brothers reminded me of this fivethirtyeight.com article from January, 2016 on the power of misinformation. While those who are uniformed might keep a somewhat open mind when discovering new information about a subject, those who are misinformed refuse to acknowledge new information that conflicts with what they already believe. According to the article, “These folks fill the gaps in their knowledge base by using their existing belief systems. Once these inferences are stored into memory, they become indistinguishable from hard data.”

In The New Yorker article, we learn how the Koch brothers used their wealth to fabricate false new articles and scientific reports denying man-made climate change, in order to ease restrictions on their chemical and fossil fuel businesses. Once this misinformation was allowed to seep into the public consciousness, it became much harder for non-partisan scientists to convince the public that man-made climate change is real and a threat to our existence. According to Mayer, “Even though the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recently issued a report concluding that the evidence for global warming is unequivocal, more Americans are convinced than at any time since 1997 that scientists have exaggerated the seriousness of global warming.”

https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/trump-supporters-appear-to-be-misinformed-not-uninformed/